Goddess In Art; Femininity From Ancient Until Now
By Risikat Owoeye
You will probably have noticed that for millennia, artists have been a touch obsessed with the feminine figure, with many artists utilising the female form as an inspiration or medium to create and experiment. However, given the length of time since this occurred, as well as the constant evolution of the art industry, portrayals of the feminine form have shifted; Or have they? Find out more here in Goddess In Art; Femininity From Ancient Until Now.
Image on left, Olivia Sterling And her warm chest is a sweet grave, 2024, Acrylic on canvas, 160 x 140 cm, 63 x 55 1/8 in. Courtesy of the artist and Guts Gallery. Photography by Studio Adamson.
In many ancient cultures, femininity was associated with curves and softness, and a woman with a fuller figure was considered attractive and alluring. Ancient art and sculptures, often depict women with round hips, ample breasts, and a fuller figure.
The fashion in women’s body forms and shapes has varied over time, and art has displayed the female body in a variety of ways. Fashion may well dictate at any given time or any specific place the current trend of the fashionable body shape. But how has that been represented in the world of art?
But for centuries the ‘Rubenesque’ (Flemish realism art movement) woman has been explored in many art forms, with her rounded fleshy forms. Yet the ideal body type varied between cultures and periods. For example, in ancient Greece, the ideal female body was slim and athletic, whilst in ancient Egypt, a more curvaceous body was preferred.
Similarly, during the art movement of the Italian Renaissance (14th and 16th centuries), a fuller figure was considered attractive, but during the French Revolution, a slim and petite body type was favoured.
The Three Graces, by Peter Paul Rubens, 1630, Museo del Prado, Madrid
The 17th-century Flemish painter Peter Paul Ruben was even the namesake of the term “Rubenesque” which means plum or rounded, as he often depicted women with curvaceous body types.
These full-figured ladies were once regarded as the epitome of female beauty. The ancients saw curvier bodies as indicators of health, fertility, and prosperity. This made curvaceous women very desired as spouses seen as ideal for carrying children and also as a way of showing off the husband’s wealth; highlighting he could, in fact, afford to feed her plenty of food.
Artemisia Gentileschi, Sleeping Venus, 1626, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond
Artemisia Gentileschi is undoubtedly the most well-known female artist of the Baroque period, (17th and first half of the 18th century) and her Sleeping Venus exemplifies her wholly feminine perspective of her body. Her figure becomes a symbol of inactivity in life and at a specific point in time; a signifier of health and wealth.
As she falls asleep on a sumptuous crimson and gold pillow, Cupid is fanning her with brilliantly coloured peacock feathers and admires her flawless figure. Her attractiveness lies in her physical demeanour, and her lovely curves that infuse the artwork with a feminine presence.
Le tre Grazie, Antonio Canova, (1757 – 1822), Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
Also, the artist Canova’s 1757 – 1822 neoclassical sculptures reflect a female shape that differs from what we see today. Canova usually displays the woman’s body within his sculptures with curves, belly and thighs.
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon Pablo Picasso, 1907, The Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Moving into the 20th century and modern art saw Pablo Picasso’s 1881 – 1973 Les Demoiselles d’Avignon evokes discomfort as much as it draws one’s eyesight. Picasso, heavily inspired by previous pieces of African artwork, fully disassembled and reconstructed the human form, with the Demoiselles serving as one of the results.
Picasso focused on the geometry of the bodies, transforming them into complicated but basic structures. In his hands, the bodies from Gentileschi’s image above with its beautiful curves have become abrupt and jagged as the artist no longer seeks silhouettes and precision but explores the idea of 2D and 3D in one image.
However, the attraction for curvaceous women was in vogue from the Renaissance to the Victorian era, curvier figures were celebrated and admired. So long was it the choice form that the Slim Silhouette did not become ideal until the twentieth century, with the rise of Hollywood stars and the models of the fashion industry.
Yet Lucian Freud (1922, to 2011) a British painter specialising in figurative art, is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. Freud’s portraits often depict only the sitter, sometimes sprawled naked on the floor or a bed or juxtaposed with something else.
Freud painted fellow artists, including Frank Auerbach, and Henrietta Moraes, a muse to many artists. A series of huge nude portraits from the mid-1990s depicted his muse Sue Tilley, who was a plus-size woman. These paintings remain one of the artist’s famous depicting an almost modern fertility goddess having a nap on her sofa.
She is naked and seems to be deep in unguarded sleep (her face is partly squished). Despite this, she is majestic; she has curves, and they phosphoresce gently, in shades of brown, pink, and white. All of Freud’s paintings of Tilley are now in private collections.
Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, Lucian Freud, 1995, oil on canvas.
Times change and so do attitudes. Today, our society has a wide range of accepted body types., and women are no longer seen as ‘fertility houses’.
But there is a specific one that the media highlights. Advertisements, sports and films convey the image of non-curvaceous women as beauty and health standards but art it seems, has not wholly adapted to this change rather it still reveals women’s form to be curvaceous.
For example, Artists, Lydia Pettit and Olivia Sterling’s recent exhibition displays the desires of many plus-size people. These two artists brought their different preferences in art together to create the exhibition titled ‘Bitches in Heat’ which is a raucous, untamed exploration of desire on the margins.
This inspiration comes from Paula Rego’s iconic dog woman, who crawls across the floor in one sweeping canvas, with sharp, talon-like nails and bared teeth. Sterling depicts a pair of legs playfully dangling through the ceiling above directions for the ladies’ room, as a hand passes a retro cocktail from the corner of the canvas.
Sterling’s use of food in her works and Pettit’s feral self-portraits come into play in this exhibition as it displays a plus-size woman with a mouth full of food. This art is about wanting, but feeling like you shouldn’t. Is this what society dictates?
To desire is to consume (whether a lover or a fondant fancy), and to consume is seen to give in. Together, the works portray the nature of libido as it exists within and for the self. It is a pure expression of individual wants and appetites, free from the projected desire of others or the pressure to live into them. All the women shown are curvaceous, an exhibition about food and consumption and therefore about size. But does this exhibition make a judgement on size?
Lydia Pettit & Olivia Sterling ‘Bitches In Heat’ was at the at Guts gallery.co.uk
Two more new exhibitions show women and their bodies with different perspectives on the female form. Jennifer Binnie’s recent exhibition display women figure with animal heads and facial features like eyes, nose, lips and curves on the body. Jennifer Binnie’s work was recently included in major group exhibitions RE/SISTERS: A Lens on Gender and Ecology at the Barbican, London (2023) and Women in Revolt! at Tate Britain, London (2022).
Jennifer Binnie ‘Neo naturists in the wind’, 2021, Richard Saltoun Gallery
Frida Orupabo, a Norwegian-Nigerian artist known for her distinctive collage work, creates photographic collages that take the shape of fragmented, Black, mostly female-bodied figures, exploring questions of race, sexuality and identity.
Orupabo’s source material is drawn from digitised colonial archives, social media platforms and online marketplaces. Her artwork tells stories which sometimes represent the human face on animal bodies which may depict identity. One of her recent exhibitions is a collage with paper and pin, depicting a woman with figures.
The Ambush, 2022, Frida Orupabo Stevenson gallery South Africa, image taken at frieze London.
The female figure has always been a central theme in significant works of art, serving as a source of inspiration for artists to delve into their own creative processes. As we move forward, this timeless yet contemporary subject will continue to reveal many more dimensions.
Fashion trends may alter our perceptions of both male and female bodies, but art remains a timeless and contemporary representation, particularly of the female form. Often depicted with her flesh and curves, the female figure stands apart from fashion, focusing solely on the feminine frame. On the canvas, the female form will always be in vogue, cherished in all her sizes and shapes.
Lydia Pettit & Olivia Sterling ‘Bitches In Heat’ was an exhibition at the at Guts gallery.co.uk
Exhibition Guts Gallery HQ, Unit 2 Sidings House,
10 Andre Street Hackney, London, E8 2AA
Neo Naturists in the Wind by Jennifer Binnie, 2021, is exhibiting at Richard Saltoun Gallery.com
If you enjoyed reading Goddess In Art; Femininity From Ancient Until Now then why not read, Coffee Is Passion; Life Goes Hand in Hand with It
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